- Dynamics and driving forces of agricultural landscapes in Southern Ethiopia – a case study of the Chencha and Arbaminch areas. It’s the population pressure, stupid. No word on what expansion of agriculture and decrease in holding size is doing to agricultural biodiversity. Or wild relatives, for that matter.
- The potential of pale flax as a source of useful genetic variation for cultivated flax revealed through molecular diversity and association analyses. Levels of diversity similar in wild and cultivated, but strong differentiation between the two.
- Microsatellite analysis of genetic relationships between wild and cultivated melons in Northwest and Central China. For the true wild melons, go to the NW. Others may be escapes and introgressions.
- Evaluation of cauliflower genebank accessions under organic and conventional cultivation in Southern Germany. Genotype performance differs depending on cultivation method. But if you want to breed specifically for organic conditions, here’s what to use.
- Mission and Modern Citrus Species Diversity of Baja California Peninsula Oases. Lots of unique types in the mission oases and surrounding ranches. For how long? Well, here’s the baseline. I’d like to know about the agritourism potential.
- Evaluation of mungbean genotypes for salt tolerance at early seedling growth stage. From the Indian core collection. Some good stuff found.
- Implementing the dynamic conservation of elm genetic resources in Europe: case studies and perspectives. Genebanks are not enough. But then again, nobody ever said they were.
- Future distributions of Fusarium oxysporum f. spp. in European, Middle Eastern and North African agricultural regions under climate change. Some countries are in big trouble.
- Use of wheat genetic resources to develop biofortified wheat with enhanced grain zinc and iron concentrations and desirable processing quality. CIMMYT has used a range of wild species to increase the Zn and Fe content of high-yielding, high-quality bread wheat lines.
- Expressing the public value of plant genetic resources by organising novel relationships: The contribution of selected participatory plant breeding and market-based arrangements. PPB can help smallholders manage the indirect and option value of agrobiodiversity, but it needs new types of property rights and networked governance. Whatever that is, it can take a variety of forms. All this from China, of all places.
On sorghums and cultures
Our friend Dr Ola Westengen just sent us this post on a paper that he’s just had published. Keep it up, Ola, and thanks.
In a new study published in PNAS this week we stand on the shoulders of Jack R. Harlan et al. and take a molecular approach to test some interesting hypotheses on the factors shaping diversity in sorghum. In the book Origins of African Plant Domestication, from 1976, Harlan and Stemler summarized findings from their Crop Evolution Laboratory at Illinois University and proposed that the five basic “races” of sorghum identified were associated with language distribution in Africa: “Guinea is a sorghum of the Niger-Congo family, kafir a Bantu sorghum. Durra follows the Afro-Asian family fairly closely, and caudatum seems to be associated with the Chari-Nile family of languages” (p. 476). This kind of crop-language co-distribution would be in support of the contested farming-language co-dispersal hypothesis (by Diamond and Bellwood). Genetic studies have hitherto not directly explored the molecular support for this sorghum-language co-distribution hypothesis — maybe because such studies have found “little correspondence between races and marker-based groups” (Billot et al.).
We let go of the race concept and based on molecular markers we modelled the population structure in a panel of 200 ICRISAT accessions with a broad geographic origin. We identified a pattern that is in strong support of the notion that sorghum diversity and ethnolinguistic groups are associated in Africa. We identified three major sorghum populations: a Central population co-distributed with the Nilo-Saharan language family; a Southern population co-distributed with the Bantu languages; and a Northern population distributed across northern Niger-Congo and Afro-Asiatic language family areas.
A case study of the seed system of the Pari people, a group descending from the proposed first Nilo-Saharan sorghum cultivators, living in today’s South Sudan, provides a window into the social and cultural factors involved in generating and maintaining the pattern seen at the continental scale. We show that the age-grade system, a cultural institution important for the expansive success of this group in the past, governs the traditional sorghum seed system in a way that maintains the Pari sorghum landraces as a metapopulation. Thus, we can make Harlan and Stemler’s words as ours: “It has been our observation that the races of sorghum are intimately associated with the cultivators who grow them.”
So Harlan et al. are our main references, but how did we start thinking along these ethnolinguistic lines in the first place? Well, like many others in the community we regularly read this excellent blog.
Brainfood: Space peppers, Stunting stunting, Wild passion infusions, Welcoming millet, Georgia pears, Portuguese beef, Adaptation in Niger, Olives in Sicily & Jordan, Vigna diversity
- Isolation and detection of differential genes in hot pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) after space flight using AFLP markers. Space flight resulted in some new traits.
- Addressing chronic malnutrition through multi-sectoral, sustainable approaches: a review of the causes and consequences. Many causes, many consequences, many things that could be done. Too complicated? Here’s a ray of hope for you: “…diet diversity for children older than 6 months, measured as consumption of at least four food groups, has been found to have the strongest impact on the prevention of stunting compared to other IYCF interventions.”
- Antioxidants and sensory properties of the infusions of wild passiflora from Brazilian savannah: potential as functional beverages. Possibly better than green tea, and just as acceptable, except for P. alata, which is inexplicably bitter. Which personally makes me want to try it even more.
- Formative Research on Acceptability of Pearl Millet in Rural Eastern Kenya – A Pilot Study. A lot of families were willing to barter their maize for it.
- Genetic relationships between wild progenitor pear (Pyrus L.) species and local cultivars native to Georgia, South Caucasus. Local Georgian cultivars are close to the local wild species, which is genetically distinct in that country compared to others represented in the USDA collection.
- Traceability of 9 Portuguese cattle breeds with PDO products in the market using microsatellites. You can do it, but will there really be viable Protected Denomination of Origin products based on different Portuguese cattle breeds?
- Divergent adaptation to climate variability: A case study of pastoral and agricultural societies in Niger. What’s good for the farmer is bad for the pastoralist. ‘Twas ever thus.
- Molecular characterization of olive (Olea europaea L.) Sicilian cultivars using SSR markers. Some things with the same name were different, some things with different names were the same. Still no cure for cancer.
- Characterization of Jordanian olive cultivars (Olea europaea L.) using RAPD and ISSR molecular markers. All the 13 tested were different. No word on relationships with the Sicilian varieties. But then I’ve given up on finding that sort of collaboration.
- Detection of Genome Donor Species of Neglected Tetraploid Crop Vigna reflexo-pilosa (Créole Bean), and Genetic Structure of Diploid Species Based on Newly Developed EST-SSR Markers from Azuki Bean (Vigna angularis). “V. trinervia and one taxon of V. hirtella are the genome donors of V. reflexo-pilosa.” Never heard of any of them.
Brainfood: Tea cores, Amazonian domestication, Sicilian remedies, Odisha wild veggies, Insect biomass, Energy crops, Adoption, Field size, Rye diversity, Crab breeding
- Worldwide core collections of tea (Camellia sinensis) based on SSR markers. From 788 to 192 doesn’t seem like a great deal.
- Crop Domestication in the Amazon. The first arrivals were not just hunter-gatherers.
- Plant genetic resources and traditional knowledge on medicinal use of wild shrub and herbaceous plant species in the Etna Regional Park (Eastern Sicily, Italy). 71 wild species are used for medicine, but the properties of most are known by only a few informants.
- Traditional knowledge on wild edible plants as livelihood food in Odisha, India. 86 wild species are eaten. No word on the pattern of distribution of knowledge, at least in the abstract.
- Insects in the human food chain: global status and opportunities. The real potential is in animal feed production.
- Energy crops: Prospects in the context of sustainable agriculture. They have a role in Europe to reduce effects of climate change while supporting food security and preserving the environment, but most are in early stages of domestication, and we’ll need more efficient enzymatic systems for the conversion of cellulose, and the development of multiple products.
- Are there systematic gender differences in the adoption of sustainable agricultural intensification practices? Evidence from Kenya. Not for improved seeds, apparently.
- A contemporary decennial global Landsat sample of changing agricultural field sizes. Nine hotspots of field size change, driven by different factors, and not all in same direction. I wonder if you can use this as a proxy for levels of agricultural biodiversity?
- Genome-wide characterization of genetic diversity and population structure in Secale. Limited diversity in improved material, and no structure. Need those genebanks.
- Comparison of the culture performance and profitability of wild-caught and captive pond-reared Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) juveniles reared in grow-out ponds: Implications for seed selection and genetic selection programs. Wild is best. For now.
Brainfood: Goat diversity, Sheep diversity, Camel keeping, Weird Zambian cattle, Pepper diversity, Strawberry diversity, Breeding wheat, Sustainable cacao, Food supply diversity
- The characterization of goat genetic diversity: Towards a genomic approach. A single Neolithic origin.
- Genome-wide patterns of adaptation to climate-mediated selective pressures in sheep. Adaptation to local climates has been important.
- Characterisation of camel breeding practices in the Ansongo Region, Mali. Diversity of practices, diversity of breeds.
- Gynomimicry in the Dwarf Gwembe breed from Zambia. The males mimic the secondary sexual characters of females, presumably because they’ve been selected to do so.
- Evaluation of a diverse, worldwide collection of wild, cultivated and landrace peppers (Capsicum annuum) for resistance to Phytophthora fruit rot, genetic diversity and population structure. No completely resistant lines out of 177, 2 pretty good ones, the better ones confined to 2 of 4 genetic clusters.
- Evaluation of strawberry (Fragaria L.) genetic resources on resistance to Botrytis cinerea. Out of 107 accessions in the German national genebank, 5 were pretty good, 4 of them F. vesca.
- Redesigning the exploitation of wheat genetic resources. Allele mining is out, genome-wide selection is in.
- Making biodiversity-friendly cocoa pay: combining yield, certification and REDD for shade management. Even if you increase yields by 50%, that may not be enough to stop farmers converting from traditional agroforestry. Enter ecolabelling and REDD.
- Measuring nutritional diversity of national food supplies. Production diversity is a good predictor of dietary diversity, but only for low income countries; otherwise income and trade are better. Dietary diversity associated with key health outcomes.